The Belgian financial sector and Belgian mobile operators Belgacom, Mobistar and Base announced that they will join forces to develop a new mobile payment system in Belgium. The parties did not give out any more details on the system. They did say that the new product, which will be jointly developed by both sectors, will be launched in the course of the year. The new product will enable customers to use their mobile phones as a an electronic wallet for small amounts of up to EUR 25. The system will use SMS and contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Of the three operators, Belgacom is the most advanced. It already uses PingPing, a method for small payments via SMS or a passive NFC tag. The service is also available to ther subscribers of other operators, but the number of stores that accept such payments is still low.
